http://chicagosports.chicagotribune....ls%2Dheadlines
[quote]Bucks: No team was more unprepared to open the playoffs than the Bucks. "[The Nets] played a playoff game and we were still in the regular season," Bucks coach George Karl said.
So whose fault is that? The Bucks weren't ready, just as they weren't last season in the biggest late-season collapse in NBA history. Just as Karl's U.S. team was unprepared last summer in its worst finish in world-championship play.
Karl got management to trade Glenn Robinson and Ray Allen. Now he's not speaking to Tim Thomas, who didn't start as the Bucks were blitzed from the beginning. They started Marcus Haislip.
Marcus Haislip?
"I don't know. You have to ask that guy over there," Thomas said, nodding toward Karl, when asked if he'd start Game 2. "I don't have a darn clue."
Bucks players may have been distracted. Gary Payton, Sam Cassell and Jason Caffey had to leave for Toronto after the game to answer to charges in an alleged assault that took place outside a Toronto strip club 10 days ago.
One version circulating around the league had a Bucks player talking to a dancer at the club. Her boyfriend supposedly took offense, and the three Bucks engaged in a fight with the boyfriend and then a bouncer. Biggest surprise: Anthony Mason wasn't involved.
From afar, Allen believes Karl is reaping what he sows.
"I went to bat for a couple guys who did not work out, and they ended up destroying our chemistry," Allen said. "You can't just put talent on a team anymore. You have to know how guys affect locker rooms."
QUOTE]
Tim Thomas quote:
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